State of the Planet

News from the Columbia Climate School

Health48

  • Climate and Meningitis in Africa

    The International Research Institute for Climate and Society and Google are offering a guided tour of Africa to teach you about the relationship between climate and deadly meningitis outbreaks there. No need to pack your bags, though: it’s a virtual tour, one you can run on Google Earth from your living room. The climate and…

  • Getting Back on Track: Ending Global Hunger and Undernutrition

    One of the targets of the first Millennium Development Goal (MDG) is to reduce the proportion of people who suffer from hunger by half between 1990 and 2015, with hunger measured as the proportion of the population who are undernourished and the prevalence of children under five who are underweight.

  • Study Sees Little Dust Risk For Subway Workers

    Compact Air Samplers Track Pollution in New York Tunnels

  • UNAIDS, Millennium Villages Work to Eliminate Mother-Child HIV Transmission in Africa

    With scale-up to national level, 16,000 infections could be averted

  • Healthy Climate, Healthy People

    As leaders debate climate policy in Copenhagen, one essential dimension has been largely left out: human health. This is a mistake for two reasons. First, one of the most compelling reasons for aggressive action is to avoid the enormous long-term health impacts likely to be felt throughout the world if we continue to push our…

  • World Pneumonia Day

    Today is the first World Pneumonia Day (WPD).To demonstrate your solidarity with the millions of children who are afflicted with pneumonia every year, WPD asks that you wear blue jeans to school, work, or wherever you go on this day. WPD has organized a Global Pneumonia Summit of over 100 media representatives, scientists, political leaders,…

  • Changing the Urban Relationship to Food

    With an Italian background, from a culture of food, as biologist and one time theatre producer, to me it makes sense to work with a research group that has the courage to break many taboos and re-discuss academic assumptions in an open and innovative way.

  • Designers at Columbia and MIT Promote “Foodshed” Concept

    Contributed by Richard Plunz and Michael Conard On September 10th, Michael Pollan, author of “In Defense of Food” and “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” highlighted the work of designers at the Earth Institute’s Urban Design Lab (UDL) in his Op-Ed Contribution to the New York Times, titled “Big Food vs. Big Insurance.” Since 2007, researchers at the…

  • The Earth Institute and Merck & Co., Inc./The Merck Company Foundation Collaborate To Strengthen Health Services In Rural Africa

    NEW YORK, June 22 — With the financial support and collaboration of The Merck Company Foundation, the Earth Institute at Columbia University is launching an ambitious initiative to strengthen community health services for over 400,000 people in ten African countries under the Millennium Villages project. The initiative will advance the development of a professional cadre…

Composite banner with modern building at night and portrait of Dean Alexis Abramson that reads "Science for the Planet"

By studying thousands of buildings and analyzing their electricity use, Columbia Climate School Dean Alexis Abramson has been able to uncover ways to significantly cut energy consumption and emissions. Watch the Video: “Engineering a Cooler Future Through Smarter Buildings

  • Climate and Meningitis in Africa

    The International Research Institute for Climate and Society and Google are offering a guided tour of Africa to teach you about the relationship between climate and deadly meningitis outbreaks there. No need to pack your bags, though: it’s a virtual tour, one you can run on Google Earth from your living room. The climate and…

  • Getting Back on Track: Ending Global Hunger and Undernutrition

    One of the targets of the first Millennium Development Goal (MDG) is to reduce the proportion of people who suffer from hunger by half between 1990 and 2015, with hunger measured as the proportion of the population who are undernourished and the prevalence of children under five who are underweight.

  • Study Sees Little Dust Risk For Subway Workers

    Compact Air Samplers Track Pollution in New York Tunnels

  • UNAIDS, Millennium Villages Work to Eliminate Mother-Child HIV Transmission in Africa

    With scale-up to national level, 16,000 infections could be averted

  • Healthy Climate, Healthy People

    As leaders debate climate policy in Copenhagen, one essential dimension has been largely left out: human health. This is a mistake for two reasons. First, one of the most compelling reasons for aggressive action is to avoid the enormous long-term health impacts likely to be felt throughout the world if we continue to push our…

  • World Pneumonia Day

    Today is the first World Pneumonia Day (WPD).To demonstrate your solidarity with the millions of children who are afflicted with pneumonia every year, WPD asks that you wear blue jeans to school, work, or wherever you go on this day. WPD has organized a Global Pneumonia Summit of over 100 media representatives, scientists, political leaders,…

  • Changing the Urban Relationship to Food

    With an Italian background, from a culture of food, as biologist and one time theatre producer, to me it makes sense to work with a research group that has the courage to break many taboos and re-discuss academic assumptions in an open and innovative way.

  • Designers at Columbia and MIT Promote “Foodshed” Concept

    Contributed by Richard Plunz and Michael Conard On September 10th, Michael Pollan, author of “In Defense of Food” and “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” highlighted the work of designers at the Earth Institute’s Urban Design Lab (UDL) in his Op-Ed Contribution to the New York Times, titled “Big Food vs. Big Insurance.” Since 2007, researchers at the…

  • The Earth Institute and Merck & Co., Inc./The Merck Company Foundation Collaborate To Strengthen Health Services In Rural Africa

    NEW YORK, June 22 — With the financial support and collaboration of The Merck Company Foundation, the Earth Institute at Columbia University is launching an ambitious initiative to strengthen community health services for over 400,000 people in ten African countries under the Millennium Villages project. The initiative will advance the development of a professional cadre…